How is Quality of life in London compared to Edinburgh as of 2018 march?
It depends on your age and what is important to you. Say you are young and want to live in a vibrant metropolis where there is always something interesting going on on the cultural front. That is London’s huge advantage over Edinburgh. So many theatres, museums, concerts, events, fashion designers, luxury outlets, you name it, London has it. Not that Edi is not cultural, far from it. But one does not have the same range of choice. Edi is much more laid back.London also has the widest possible spectrum of employment in the UK. You can find jobs - the market is always rich and fluid. Again, there are jobs in Edi. But not by far as in London.Then there’s the rhythm of life. In London, everything happens fast, you are pushed to deliver quickly, move, fulfil, have an intense drive in everything you do. There is food for the senses all around you, you need to move among crowds, take care with a never-ending stream of cars and busses, travel long distances. Always when you come from London to Edi, you notice the change of pace, the slower rhythm, the diminished level of stress, even the relatively emptier streets.To me, quality of life is expressed in quality of housing and the balance between work - transport - home. (I will take food out of the equation - there is great variety and abundance in both cities). In London, it is often necessary to live an hour or more away from work to make ends meet, as housing is so expensive. That translates into worse housing conditions and more hours daily wasted travelling from home to work. In Edi, I can walk to work, 45 mins. Or take a bus, 15 mins. My husband who works in London, takes the tube one hour each way. 2 hours a day in a form of transport is to me wasting precious life. And two hours is just the bare minimum - ask any Londoner how much time is wasted in the tube just missing connections and waiting for repairs on the line.If you want to have your own home… well, Edi wins by a huge margin. London house prices are mad. If you want to have your own garden and not be forced to move outside town, this is possible in Edi. This is a tremendous advantage deriving from the way the city is conceived - whether living in a flat or a house you are never very far away from a green patch, whether your own garden, a meadow, a park, a wooded walk. Distances are shorter, there are more opportunities in Edi to keep a healthy lifestyle - more outdoorsy, more active.
How's it like to live in Edinburgh compared to living in London?
I lived in London for a while and now live in Edinburgh.They're both pretty cool. Edinburgh to me is quite similar to Islington. The streets (particularly of the new town) are similar in appearance, with basements behind railings and long terraces and tall shops. The difference is that when you walk more than one street away from the centre of town you get to see a hillside or a castle peeking out at the end of the road rather than just more streets.The weather's a little colder in Edinburgh, but not a lot. There seems to be a similar proportion of green space in both cities.London is generally awake earlier and later than Edinburgh, but there is certainly plenty of varied nightlife in Edinburgh.Both cities have a lot of tourists. Edinburgh is less crowded most of the time except during peak times (festival season) when it gets absolutely rammed.Both cities have good public transport with day-passes to help visitors get around, and good airports.Both have similar historic attractions, really, with bridges and museums and dungeons and so forth.The question is asking to compare the two cities, but to be honest I find more in common with them than I find different. I'd happily move back to London because I miss some of the bustle and constant-on lifestyle and happily stay in Scotland because I like the personality and pace of life.Edinburgh is sprawling, but it doesn't have an equivalent in terms of scale for some of the things you find down South. There's no market which could compete with Camden's. There's no Covent Carden. There's no ever-present river (while it's very pretty, you could jump over the Water of Leith given a good run up and full charge of Irn Bru)
Is Edinburgh as expensive to live as London?
Nope.I was living in London and visited Edinburgh and a local driver joked that someone sold 1 Room apartment in London and bought a Villa in Scotland.Jokes apart Edinburgh is cheaper than London in terms of Rent,Property prices and Daily commute. Having said that for the same job you might be be paid more in London than Edinburgh.Hope it helps!!
What are the main differences between London and Edinburgh?
London is an enormous conurbation, and the capital of the United Kingdom. London dominates the South East of England.The first impression that you will have of Edinburgh, arriving from the airport, is the large number of old sandstone buildings. You get the feeling that you are somewhere special.I think Edinburgh is special but it is not comparable to London.If you arrive by train, you enter a hidden valley dominated by the castle. This is fantastic. On one side you have the castle, on the other side you have the New Town, with the main shopping street. Off the main shopping street, Princes Street, are other streets that lead to squares and a pedestrian walk way that is parallel to Princes Street that is magical.Strictly speaking there are two railway stations in Edinburgh, the main one is Waverley, and Haymarket is closer to the airport.You need a map of the underground to have some idea of the number of important railway station in London. Several were the terminuses of large regions. Euston and Saint Pancreas for the North and Channel Tunnel, Paddington and Waterloo for the West and South, Liverpool Street for the East, etc.London has numerous airports, and you can even land at a regional airport and then go to London.Edinburgh:Think Hogwarts and Platform 19 and three quarters.
What salary is needed in Edinburgh to live in same level as in London for 80-90k per year?
Most living costs in terms of food and stuff are similar across the UK - the major differences would be transport and accommodation. Edinburgh has the usual range of house prices but even nice areas near the centre of town can be found for < £500,000. Transport an all day ticket in London tends to be around £12, or £4 in Edinburgh so transport costs are significantly cheaper.You are probably looking at saving 5-15,000 a year by living in Edinburgh rather than London, so likely towards the 70-80,000 mark. Though at that level of income a large proportion of your expenditure is likely discretionary rather than on rent / food / transport.
How big is Dublin airport in comparison to UK airports?
I've flown from Cardiff, Bristol, Manchester, Heathrow and Gatwick in the UK. Just wondering what the size of Dublin airport is approximately, and if it could be compared to any of the ones I've listed above. Thanks! x
How different is the climate in Edinburgh and London?
Edinburgh and London share temperate oceanic climates (Koppen Cfb). On average, they get neither very hot nor very cool and are relatively humid throughout the year — both cities are relatively wet and have no clear dry seasons. Rain falls in every season fairly evenly.Because of the influence of their proximity to large bodies of water and the Atlantic Current in particular, Edinburgh and London are far milder in winter than places of similar latitude in other areas of the world with temperatures generally averaging above freezing, sometimes well above freezing. Snowfall is infrequent and sometimes entirely absent because air temperatures are generally too high to encourage the heavy snowfall seen in places at similar latitudes much further from the seas (think of Kiev, Minsk, or Moscow).Winters are generally very cloudy and rainy although rain tends to come in the form of intermittent showers rather than downpours. Temperatures are cool to mild, but not usually very cold. On occasion, a cold snap might cause temperatures to plunge briefly, but this is not usually sustained beyond a couple of days.Springs and autumns are fairly mild and pleasant, featuring fair days with moderate temperatures. Both spring and autumn see occasional showers although they have more sunny days than in winter.Summers are warm and the sunniest time of year. Every year, both Edinburgh and London will see 1–2 weeks of definitively hot days midsummer but heat waves are usually quite limited compared to the European mainland. Summer temperatures while warm are still moderated by the cooling influence of the seas.Because of its higher northerly latitude, Edinburgh is colder and cloudier than London in every season although not by an enormous degree. These two cities have far more climatic similarities than differences.
What are the major system (educational, NHS, commercial, etc.) differences between Edinburgh and London, and which has the better lifestyle?
I agree with most of what Clarice says but would like to add that London is great if you live near your work, or you have an infinite amount of time to get where you’re going, but it’s hell if you need to get from A to B at speed, and A and B are too far apart to walk it. Edinburgh is less congested, and small enough that if you have to, you can get where you want to go on foot. The air in Edinburgh is fresher: London is often unpleasantly clammy, because of being in the bottom of a valley with a great big river.London has many beautiful buildings, and so many green spaces that it technically qualifies as a forest, but the cityscape of Edinburgh is better. Because it is draped over seven hills, instead of slumped in the bottom of a valley, Edinburgh has many spectacular vistas where you round a corner and find a green or rocky hillside just rising up at the side of the street. Google Maps In London you have to go as far south as Crystal Palace or as far north as Harrow on the Hill to see similar dramatic juxtapositions.Both cities have superb botanic gardens and zoos, but London’s are larger and slightly more historic.London has more museums. However, Edinburgh is in easy travelling distance of Glasgow and the Burrell Collection, which is possibly the best museum in the UK. Think Victoria and Albert, except that the building itself is both a beautiful example of modern architecture and incorporates many of the exhibits into its own fabric. But the Burrell is currently shut for four years for renovations.
The "Olympics", in comparison to "world music festivals": do you think an in anyway valid one can be drawn?
I think that in any way, both kind of events are a unique and fascinating opportunity to gather people from all around the world in order to work or play as just one community. I like both type of celebrations. World music festivals gives me the opportunity to hear and apppreciate different cultural expressions (although there are people that does no like much the use of term "world music"). On the other hand, The Olympic Games, shows the enormous possibilities of human body features (citius, altius, fortius) from persons that come from extremes points of the Earth. We see the beauty and strength of Ucranian gymnasts, the elegance in diving of Chinese and Mexican athletes, the speed of Jamaican runners, the extreme resistance of Italian or Russian marchers, etc. I agree with you in thinking about this feeling of "oneness" although I prefer to think in a feeling of a "momentary lapse of equality despite the big cultural differences" among the participants in both kind of events. By the way, I can tell you that this forum works almost in the same manner, because I am Mexican and I am fortunate to share thoughts with you and many other people in this precise moment despite the distance and language barriers... ¡Saludos desde México! (Greetings from Mexico!)